Cluster 0126

BG-3.29

Sanskrit śloka (BG-3.29)

प्रकृतेर्गुणसंमूढाः सज्जन्ते गुणकर्मसु । तानकृत्स्नविदो मन्दांकृत्स्नविन्न विचालयेत् ॥२९॥

Literal English: Those completely deluded by the guṇas of prakṛti cling to the guṇa-driven actions. Let not the one who knows the whole disturb the dull-witted who know only the part.

Editor's note on Sakhare's cluster-split: Sakhare's 2-ovi cluster here (3.184–3.185) commentates on the FIRST hemistich (प्रकृतेर्गुणसंमूढाः सज्जन्ते गुणकर्मसु). The second hemistich (तानकृत्स्नविदो मन्दान् कृत्स्नविन्न विचालयेत् — let not the knower-of-the-whole dislodge the dull-witted partial-knowers) does not appear to receive direct commentary in these two ovis; it is either folded into the next cluster's opening or absent at this editorial split. Worth flagging.

Ovi 3.184

Original (Marathi): एथ कर्मीं तोचि लिंपे । जो गुणसंभ्रमें घेपे । प्रकृतीचेनि आटोपे । वर्ततु असे ॥१८४॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
एथ	here / in this case (disjunctive against the तत्त्वज्ञानी of 3.181-183)
कर्मीं	in/by action (locative)
तोचि	he alone, that very one (emphatic)
लिंपे	gets stained / smeared (Old Marathi — present passive of to-stick)
जो	who
गुणसंभ्रमें	by guṇa-confusion / by confounding through the guṇas
घेपे	is seized / is taken hold of (passive of घेणे)
प्रकृतीचेनि	by prakṛti's (instrumental)
आटोपे	grip / constraint (Old Marathi compound — `binding-hold`)
वर्ततु असे	continues to operate / goes on functioning

Literal translation

English: Here in karma, only he gets stained — the one who is seized by guṇa-confusion, who continues operating under prakṛti's grip.

मराठी (आधुनिक): ज्ञानी कर्मानें लेपन घेत नाहीं, हें झालें. परंतु येथें — या प्रकृति-कक्षेंत — तोच कर्मानें माखला जातो जो गुणांच्या गोंधळानें पकडला गेला आहे, ज्याचे जिणे प्रकृतीच्या जखडलेपणांत चालू आहे.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi. (The verb लिंपे carries a tactile coloring-image — karma sticks like dye/grease — but the figure is not unfolded.)

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The गुण-प्रकृति vocabulary is classical Sānkhya-Vedānta substratum-language, not Nāth-tantric esoterics.

Cross-references

Internal:
3.178 — developed-further: 3.178 said the deluded person claims मी कर्ता; 3.184 explains the mechanism (गुणसंभ्रमें घेपे — he is seized by guṇa-confusion). The claim is the symptom; the seizure is the cause.
3.181 — contradicts-and-revises: 3.181 said the tattvajñānī is the one in whom प्रकृतिभावो नाहीं. 3.184 is its dark mirror — the one who प्रकृतीचेनि आटोपे वर्ततु असे (operates under prakṛti's grip). The एथ at the head of 3.184 is the disjunctive pivot between the two figures.
Tukaram parallel: none. Tukaram broadly affirms the मी कर्ता-foolishness but not in the specific बलात्कारें आपादणे register that 3.185 introduces.
Source citation:
BG-3.29 — direct-paraphrase: संमूढ unfolded into three Marathi verbs: गुणसंभ्रमें घेपे → प्रकृतीचेनि आटोपे वर्ततु असे → कर्मीं लिंपे (confusion → grip → staining).
BG-3.27 — echo: same patient as 3.178's मतिभ्रमें मी कर्ता म्हणे figure, now under a different diagnostic angle.

Modern application

The manager whose entire week has been determined by the company's incentive structure — quarterly targets, escalations, status meetings — yet who at the end of the week says with conviction I am driving outcomes. The structure drove him; he did not drive anything. He is प्रकृतीचेनि आटोपे वर्ततु असे, naming his being-driven as his driving.
The parent who, mid-emotional-spiral over a child's misbehavior, makes a parenting decision and afterwards holds it as a considered choice. The spiral made the decision; the parent ratifies-after-the-fact. The गुणसंभ्रम is the rajas-spiral; the लिंपणे is the long aftertaste — guilt-residue, reputational-stain in the family memory, the decision becoming policy.
The doom-scroller four hours into the feed who tells himself I'm researching this topic. The algorithm is the prakṛti-grip; the researching-narration is the guṇa-confusion; the karmic-staining is the post-session fatigue and the felt-truth of this is who I am now.

Sādhanā

At the next moment of frustration today — the next time you feel pulled to react sharply — pause for one breath and name the seizure before naming the action: I have been gripped by [rajas-restlessness / tamas-dullness / sattva-righteousness]; what arises next is the grip moving, not me choosing. Do not try to alter the action. Just name the precedence. The naming is the de-staining work; the staining requires you to skip the naming.

Arc

3.184 names the structure of the deluded person's condition (seized → operating-under → stained). 3.185 will name the SPECIFIC content of the misappropriation: the senses' own-operation being forcibly relabeled as the self's doing.

Ovi 3.185

Original (Marathi): इंद्रियें गुणाधारें । राहाटती निजव्यापारें । तें परकर्म बलात्कारें । आपादी जो ॥१८५॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
इंद्रियें	the senses (nominative plural)
गुणाधारें	with guṇa as substrate / on the support of the guṇas
राहाटती	go on / continue to operate (Old Marathi present-3rd-pl. of रहाटणे)
निजव्यापारें	by their own operation / native activity
तें	that (neuter — referring to the senses' activity)
परकर्म	another's-work / not-his-own-work
बलात्कारें	by force / forcibly
आपादी	takes on / appropriates / makes-it-his (verb आपादणे)
जो	who [does so]

Literal translation

English: The senses, with the guṇas as their substrate, go on operating by their own native activity; he who forcibly takes that — which is not his own work — onto himself [is the one stained].

मराठी (आधुनिक): इंद्रियें गुणांचाच आधार घेऊन, स्वतःच्या व्यापारानें चालू असतात. ती क्रिया खरें म्हणजे ज्याचें कर्म नव्हे, तें कर्म जो जबरदस्तीनें आपलें म्हणून पदरीं ओढून घेतो — तोच कर्मानें माखला जातो.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi. (निजव्यापारें / परकर्म is a precise grammatical-ontological distinction, not an extended figure.)

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. इंद्रिय-गुण classical Sānkhya-Vedānta vocabulary; no cakra, no suṣumnā, no kuṇḍalinī.

Cross-references

Internal:
3.184 — developed-further: 3.184 named the disposition (gripped, stained); 3.185 names exactly what gets misappropriated — the senses' own-operation relabeled as my doing.
3.183 — contradicts-and-revises: 3.183's sun (भूतचेष्टा गभस्ती घेपवेना — the sun is not implicated in beings' activities) is the photographic-positive of 3.185's deluded person who IS घेपे (taken) by exactly what the sun-jñānī is not taken by, and worse, forcibly takes-on what is not his.
Tukaram parallel: none. The specific senses-on-substrate / forcible-self-attribution distinction is not catalogued in the Tukaram corpus indexed so far.
Source citation:
BG-3.29 — direct-paraphrase: सज्जन्ते unfolded into a TWO-actor causal grammar: the senses are operating (legitimate); the appropriating ahankāra forcibly takes (illegitimate).
BG-3.28 — echo: the inverse — गुणा गुणेषु वर्तन्त इति मत्वा न सज्जते (knowing the guṇas operate among the guṇas, [the tattvavid] does not get attached). 3.185 makes explicit what attachment IS: forcible self-insertion as the doer.
BG-5.9 — echo: इंद्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेषु वर्तन्त इति धारयन् — the yukta one holds that the senses operate among the sense-objects. The निजव्यापारें / परकर्म distinction is the mechanism BG-5.9 will assume.

Modern application

Digestion, heartbeat, peristalsis, sleep, sense-perception — the body's own-operation continuously goes on by the body's निजव्यापार. The deluded person, having done none of it, signs off on it as my health work, my body that I take care of. The forcible-take-on is mostly invisible because it is so universal.
The person who has just recovered from a long illness and tells the story as I fought through it. The immune system, the doctors, the medications, the bed, the family's care, the body's own-restitution work were the agents; the self appropriates the credit. परकर्म बलात्कारें आपादी. (The same story narrated as gratitude — I am here because so much beyond me did its work — is exactly the दे-appropriation.)
The meditator who is observing the breath and slips into the claim I am breathing. The breath was being breathed by the diaphragm's निजव्यापार before the meditator arrived and will continue after. The meditator's job is to NOT take it on; the slip into I am doing this breath is the small, daily, lab-scale बलात्कारें आपादणे — caught in real-time, it is one of the cleanest opportunities to feel the appropriation move.

Sādhanā

For one transition-moment in the day — when you get up from sitting, or when you reach for the cup of tea — pause for sixty seconds and watch the body's निजव्यापार: the breath happening, the standing-up engaging the legs, the hand reaching. Do NOT take credit for any of it. If the thought I am doing this arises, return to this is being done; the body is on its own substrate; I am observing. Sixty seconds; one transition; once.

Arc

3.184-3.185 close the dark-figure diagnostic: the patient is seized → operates under grip → stained-by-karma → because he forcibly appropriates what the senses are doing on their own. Having drawn the dark figure crisply, Kṛṣṇa pivots in BG-3.30 (next cluster) from diagnosis to operational prescription FOR Arjuna: surrender all actions to me with mind in the Self, become desireless and possessionless, and fight free of fever.

Cluster summary

Core teaching: The prakṛti-deluded person, gripped by guṇa-confusion and operating under prakṛti's compulsion, gets stained by karma precisely because he forcibly claims the senses' organic guṇa-activity as his own doing — and BG-3.29's caesura instructs the knower not to dislodge such a person from his level.

Theme tags: BG-3.29, prakṛti-sammūḍha, guṇa-karma-staining, forcible-self-attribution, बलात्कारें-आपादणे, लिंपणे, ahankāra-mechanism, kṛtsna-vid-vs-akṛtsna-vid

Contains extended metaphor: false.

Chapter arc position: The dark-mirror to clusters 0124-0125. BG-3.27 (cluster 0124) opened the diagnostic of the deluded with the I-am-the-doer claim. BG-3.28 (cluster 0125) gave the positive figure of the tattvavid with the sun-imagery (भूतचेष्टा गभस्ती घेपवेना — the sun is not implicated in beings' activities). BG-3.29 (this cluster) returns to the deluded with the precise mechanism of guṇa-staining: seized → operates under grip → forcibly appropriates senses' own-operation → stained. The 3.184↔3.181 cross-cluster pair forms a single bipolar diagnostic (prakṛti-absent vs. prakṛti-grasped). Note: Sakhare's editorial split here stops at 3.185, covering only the FIRST hemistich (प्रकृतेर्गुणसंमूढाः सज्जन्ते गुणकर्मसु); the second hemistich (तानकृत्स्नविदो मन्दान् कृत्स्नविन्न विचालयेत् — let not the knower dislodge the dull) is unaccounted-for in these two ovis. Flagged for cross-edition check when Sarṭa comparator is acquired.

Connects to next śloka: BG-3.30 — मयि सर्वाणि कर्माणि सन्यस्याध्यात्मचेतसा निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः. Having drawn the dark figure of the deluded (3.29 first half), Kṛṣṇa pivots in 3.30 to the operational prescription FOR Arjuna: surrender all actions to me with mind in the Self, become desireless and possessionless, and fight free of fever. Cluster 0127's first ovi 3.186 already foreshadows this: तुवां आचरोनि मज अर्पावीं — the karma-arpaṇa imperative that closes adhyāya 3's central doctrinal teaching.